New Zealanders and Australians Agree: Palm Oil Should Be Labelled

The majority of New Zealand and Australians agree that palm oil should be labelled on food products and expect their Governments to mandate it according to recent polling.

The dual-nation poll by UMR and commissioned by Zoos Victoria showed 92% of New Zealanders support palm oil labelling (95% females and 90% males) with the strongest support in urban areas (93%) compared to rural areas (88%).

In Australia, 84% support transparent palm oil labelling (88% female and 80% male) with the strongest support in regional areas.

Reasons for support include the right for all consumers to know what is in their food and the freedom to make choices about it accordingly.

Older New Zealanders and Australians (50+) are the most supportive of palm oil labelling with 97% and 92% respectively.

Ben Dowdle, Campaign Director of the New Zealand-based campaign, Unmask Palm Oil, an Australasian wide campaign for mandatory labelling of palm oil, said that while the polling was heartening, political action has been frustratingly slow.

“We have been having a public discussion in our region about the need for transparent labelling of palm oil for the last decade,” Mr Dowdle said. “People expect politicians to act so that consumers have the right to know what is in their food. How they use that right is up to them, but the message is clear, our community wants palm oil labelled and expects Governments to act.”

Zoos Victoria’s lead campaigner for palm oil labelling, Emily Dunstan said the poll showed the community wants the right to know the impact of their food purchases.

“New Zealand and Australian food manufacturers are still allowed to label palm oil as ‘vegetable oil’,” Ms Dunstan said. “So we have no idea if our food is contributing to the extinction of the Sumatran Orangutan, Elephant and Tiger. Palm oil that has been produced in an unsustainable way is a major threat to the survival of these species. We could lose them in our lifetime.”

The Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation will meet later this year to consider a suite of changes to food labelling including a recommendation to label the source of all oils including palm oil.

UMR polled 1,124 New Zealanders in April 2016 with a margin of error plus or minus 2.9% and polled 1,003 Australians in late February 2016 with a margin of error plus or minus 3%.

Unmask Palm Oil is calling on people to contact members of the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation at unmaskpalmoil.com

Keep asking for choice Wellingtonians!
We've been working with Unmask Palm Oil and our friends from other major zoos from around New Zealand to demand mandatory palm oil labelling on food - and we're...

While we don’t have as clear an outcome as we would have liked, palm oil labelling has progressed.

We have just had word that the 'Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation' has agreed to progress development of a policy for clear labelling of vegetable oils but they chose against initiating the formal policy process as we had hoped. This means they will be further researching how all vegetable oils impact on human health before deciding whether to begin the formal process.

New Zealand’s four major zoos, our Australian partners and Unmask Palm Oil are disappointed that it is not a clear outcome, but we are encouraged the forum is still progressing labelling and we welcome the support of the New Zealand and Victorian Governments.

This further highlights our view that the process involved is unnecessarily slow and completely undemocratic. This work began in 2009 and we will continue to work hard to see it through to the end.

We want to thank you all for your amazing support and we will continue to update you as more information comes to light. ... See MoreSee Less